Every Sunday, we curate and create free resources to help you as a digital marketer in Mauritius to thrive. Catch these resources every Sunday.

50 + Marketing Problem Solutions [Infography] (10/12/17)

81 Tools to test your marketing campaigns. (26/11/17)

]]>https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/sunday-market-inbound-mauritius/feed/0sundayjbholanauthSundayMarket - Inbound MauritiusSunday Market5 Spooky Fears of Digital Marketershttps://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/5-spooky-fears-of-digital-marketers/
https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/5-spooky-fears-of-digital-marketers/#respondFri, 27 Oct 2017 19:37:59 +0000http://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/?p=4775More 5 Spooky Fears of Digital Marketers]]>An inner shout when your content is not working as you planned or a panic attack when your major email campaign is not delivering the results you expected. We all went through these at some point in time.

Digital marketers are human with fears. Halloween is the perfect time to reveal 5 of the most feared results most digital marketers are afraid of.

The sweet spot for any content marketer is to create great content aligned to what the targeted audience actually needs. But, like any online content, there is a whole process of digging into the mind of your audience to know what they want.

And this is where Search marketing comes in handy.

For the novice reading this article, search marketing is about making sure you are creating content that matches the intent of your audience.

For example, if someone is looking for cute little cat’s food, it makes sense that you will ensure they find your cute little cat’s food store on the front page of their Google search results.

Our awwwww moment

But, here’s the thing.

You just got awwwnnn

It takes a whole search strategy to appear on the front page.

In this blog post, we are going to share some basic digital marketing strategies and approaches which are crucial to getting found on the web.

Ready? Let’s do this

1. Do your keyword research

The very first thing to do when creating online content is to understand your target audience. Here is the tricky part, guessing what your audience is looking for doesn’t work anymore.

You might end up creating content that YOU want them to find and not the other way round.

So, what are keywords exactly?

Keywords are simply words defining the core of your content and tell search engines what it is all about.

These often correspond to search queries people type in Google or any other search engines. Here’s an example.

In this example, I googled “Food for my cats in Mauritius” and the SERP (Search Engine Result page) returns the top websites that matches my query.

How does this work? Google takes my search query and try to find websites with the keywords I’ve put.

For example, the search engine will return all websites having content that matches my search intent i.e. cat food.

As content marketers or SEO specialists, it is important to understand your audience and map what your website is about to their queries by creating relevant content.

Fortunately, you no more have to guess your audience’s interests. There are some tools that retrieves these important information and keywords in some clicks.

Even the greatest artists will stay unknown nowadays if they do not promote their paintings.

Similarly, once you create your content masterpiece, you need to move on to the “distribution” phase so your audience consumes it.

We often talk about the Pareto concept where a small amount of effort can have ripple effects while creating content. But, what is it all about?

This principle is quite simple. Content distribution is so important that you should be spending 80% of your efforts in promoting it to get your expected results.

The rest is actually the content creation phase. Social media is among the best platform to promote your content.

But,

Organic reach doesn’t work anymore as announced by Facebook back in 2012. Since then, pages’ organic reach have gone down and this pushed advertisers to do more paid ads and posts boosting.

Source: Neil Patel Blog

So, how to ensure that your content is reaching to your targeted audience on Facebook?

A/B Testing your website link post
Very often we tend to omit A/B testing on social media. The main reason is that it is considered as a support channel instead of a real conversion one.Some elements you need to A/B test include caption, creatives, time & language.Here are some useful tools to keep track of your social media content and optimise them.

Seek for engagementThe new Facebook algorithm focuses a lot on engagement to determine the reach of content on its platform. This brings the most used social platform back to its origins where the focus was more on engagement and great content.

My personal advice here is to create a mix in your content which includes the following;

Very often we tend to believe that the traffic we get from social media is the same as an organic traffic from search engines ones.We all came across this digital funnel and it is still relevant today for several industries considering the change in consumer pattern.

Here are my top recommended ways to increase your conversion from your social media page to your website and vice versa.

a. Use customised landing page for traffic exclusively from social media.
b. Use retargeting strategies for people who visited specific pages of your website.
c. Use social logins for your website and gather data about your customers.
d. Focus on different post type not only your links. Pictures work well too.

3. Focus on mobile first

For the past years, the focus for marketers changed from creating websites for desktop to adopting the mobile first approach.

The main reason behind this shift is the access to the internet through relatively cheap smartphones. So, more people using smartphones equals to more people accessing basic websites through their mobile phones.

Hold on, that’s not the end…

Back in 2015, Google announced that mobile friendliness would be considered as a primary factor for higher ranking in SERPs.

But, the search engine didn’t stop there.

It started flagging websites having old technologies and not user-friendly. Google also added the mobile-friendly description in SERPs to indicate that a website can be accessed through smartphones.

We decided to test the mobile-friendliness of some of the digital agencies in Mauritius based on Google’s requirements.

Whether it is by creating great content that matches your audience queries or by being active on social media and thinking mobile first, ranking on Google is always an iterative process where you absolutely have to measure your performance.

However, ranking purely on these strategies takes time. It is not a one day job and managers should know about this.

I was recently invited to speak about digital marketing in Mauritius by Future Buzz during an event where we also had Brendan Hill from Neil Patel’s team.

After several days trying to figure out my topic, I ended up talking about the digital talent gap between young graduates and digital marketing agencies in Mauritius.

There are two main reasons why I opted for this topic;

We are currently seeing the upbringing of digital in Mauritius in various aspects. For example, more companies are going digital and require qualified talent to sustain their business aspiration to digital transformation. But, where do you go with this aspiration when you don’t have the talent needed?

To showcase the drivers that we are using at Inbound Mauritius to ensure that we are delivering quality services and at the same time preparing for our future.

So, let’s begin

If you are a digital marketer, you will agree to the fact that we can’t reach perfection with one shot. It is an iterative and agile process where we constantly improve our products.

I translated this approach and embrace it as a human being by saying that “We are not there yet, But, we are coming…”

Hold on,

This is not to brag ourselves, but to show that similar to the iteration of our products and services, we iterate ourselves as human being to aim at growth and perfection.

Digital marketing being a fast moving field, we need to cater for the upcoming not so ahead challenges.

But, what are these challenges exactly? There are two actually.

The digital extremes

The “Not-so-Ahead” trends happening and that requires digital talents.

The digital extremes is a reality in Mauritius. For various reasons, people are either “Somehow Digital” or “Extremely Digital”

Let’s begin with the “Somehow Digital” category.

Nowadays everyone is talking about digital marketing and the fact that every businesses need to cater for it. However, we still have a subset of our population not ready to fully shift to digital. Now, there are many reasons for this.

Academic: Our academic system doesn’t respond to the need for proper digital curriculum. Hence, a marketing graduate, for example, will join the labour market with little or no digital skills set.

Digital Voyeurs: These are people who heard about digital marketing and its benefits but are somehow sceptical about it.

Traditional: We do have a subset who are purely in traditional business model. I personally believe some businesses are more effective when they opt for traditional marketing.

This brings us to the “Not-so-Ahead” trends

At the beginning of the year, I published an E-book where I predicted several digital trends that will shape Mauritius’ businesses in 2017. (Comment your email below if you want it)

These trends are happening now. However, Mauritian digital agencies are doing only the basics. There’s so much to do and several avenues to develop in the coming years and finding the right talents will be the main challenge for local digital marketers.

Through the Inbound Mauritius Way

Help: We help students and businesses to be digitally proficient.

Grow: We grow individuals and businesses through our content marketing.

Educate: We educate clients, customers, students who aspires to be a digi-savvy.

Why do we believe in these 3 main drivers?

Your take out from here

We are trying to build up the digital community in Mauritius which will act as a platform to sustain the growth of local digital marketers and those who aspire to become digital professionals.

]]>https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/are-we-in-digital-comfort/feed/0jbholanauthCoverSlide-1.pngSlide-7Slide-5Slide-8Slide-9.pngSlide-11Slide-13.pngSlide-147 Things to know before opting for a digital marketing job in Mauritiushttps://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/7-things-to-know-before-opting-for-a-digital-marketing-job-in-mauritius/
https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/7-things-to-know-before-opting-for-a-digital-marketing-job-in-mauritius/#respondThu, 21 Sep 2017 19:48:18 +0000http://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/?p=4349More 7 Things to know before opting for a digital marketing job in Mauritius]]>

Digital here, digital there. We are all aware that the future of any organisation is how well it can adapt to the digital environment. Yet, there is still a great gap between what Mauritian universities are supplying and what the actual market needs.

But, here’s the thing, you won’t get it right from the beginning. Digital marketing in Mauritius evolved so much over the past few years. And it is still going strong.

To begin, we put together the Top 7 things you should know if you want to be a digital geek in a company.

Planning is a must

The very first thing in digital marketing is proper planning. If you want to make sure that your project is meeting the deadline, it is important to have proper planning and monitoring. You can use tools such as Asana or a Google spreadsheet.

Focus on data

Every decision is taken based on data. With the amount of interactions happening daily on a website, it is easily to capture customer behaviour. For instance, if you have a website, make sure that you integrate HotJar for a visual insight of user behaviour and use tracking links from Google Analytics for better accuracy.

Choose your niche or become a full-stack marketer

The good thing with digital marketing is the number of niches which exist. From content to email marketing and other more technical areas such as web technologies, you will definitely find an area where you are comfortable.

Keep on learning

As we said earlier, digital marketing evolved a lot in Mauritius over the past few years. However, we still have a long way to go and this requires aspiring digital marketers to keep on learning the different strategies and techniques. If you are an absolute beginner, you can sign up for our Digital Marketers Success Class for free today and have a breakthrough.

Meet and share knowledge

Digital strategies from one industry can be adapted to some other industries. Network with other digital marketers and grow your cross-industrial knowledge. Perk of it – It is always good to talk to others who understand your digital jargon. You may want to join our local digital marketers community on Facebook.

Experience with personal projects

Inbound Mauritius started as a personal project from Jason Bholanauth and later became a real platform. Throughout this period, the team grew and we allowed ourselves to test various digital strategies adapted to Mauritius. We gained knowledge and became confident in any of our projects.

Get certified

The bad thing of the digital industry is that everyone can easily get a job in a company provided he/she knows the terms and the basics. Getting certified helps you to stand out of the rest. It doesn’t suffice to know the terms but the application of these is what matters the most. You may consider Google AdWords or Google Analytics certification which provide some authority to your resume. (Register your Google Partner account)

]]>https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/10-marketing-lessons-from-apple/feed/0ogjbholanauth1505491939_10-marketing-lessons-apple-infographic.jpgEmail Marketers should consider these!https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/email-marketers-should-consider-these/
https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/email-marketers-should-consider-these/#commentsSun, 27 Aug 2017 13:02:40 +0000http://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/?p=4171More Email Marketers should consider these!]]>Email marketing proved to be among the top converting digital marketing mediums over the past few years. Nowadays, marketers can directly target their customers in their privacy, that is directly in the inbox. This red-eye shot, however, requires some good case practices.

In this article, I will cover the Top 3 to-dos for email marketing. Ready? Here we go.

1. Good copywriting is a must.

Emails with no proper copywriting tend to convert less compared to well structured ones. You should have come across some email content that really makes you want to buy the product or simply click on a button or a link.

But, here’s the thing—copywriting is not so simple. It is not only about forming some sentences, hoping your readers will take an action.

We often fail to acknowledge that our emails are not really converting and this incur time, money and efforts invested into something not worth it.

Fortunately, I came across some techniques and I tested them. Among them is the PAS that worked pretty good.

Let me define it

Identify the problem is the part of your email where you clearly state the problem that your customers are facing.

Agitate the problem is where you make the link between the problem and its effects over something your customers value the most.

Provide the solution is the part of your email where you provide your unique solution.

If these are still confusing for you, let me give you a concrete example.

In this example, from Post Planner, the email does not contain much copywriting but it follows a proper PAS structure leading to an obvious call-to-action.

2. Good timing leads to good open rates

Let me get this straight—people don’t have time to read your emails when they are busy with their family or enjoying a good meal.

You got to make sure these reach their inbox at the right time and most importantly are not shadowed by other promotional emails or updates.

Unfortunately…

There are no predefined timings because of two main components of your email marketing strategy. These are:

Your audience

and your niche market.

First, your audience is dissimilar to others. For instance, your audience might be of a different age group having different interest. This would eventually mean their day-to-day activities are different.

I tested Growbots for one of the email campaigns I sent out to marketing professionals in Mauritius. Below are the settings.

Now, I didn’t abide to these data completely.

But, I used them as a benchmark, iterated and optimised the campaign, until I get the perfect time/day to send my B2B emails.

The two big words here are “iterated” and “optimised”. As email marketers, it is important to keep track and make sure to work out the data you received following your email campaigns.

I tried, what I will call, “Finding your Nemo time” for the past months and my open rates and click rate improved while I was iterating the process.

Above are the figures from the Growbot campaign where I targeted a B2B audience.

3. Personalisation adds another layer to the experience.

As I mentioned, email enables marketers to have a personal contact with their audience by directly targeting their mailbox.

You will surely not be the only one making the most of this channel. As a result, your audience might be receiving tons of emails daily.

How to stand out in this turmoil? Among all the different strategies, personalisation is one of the most used.

Now, there exists different level of personalisation. In this article, I’ll cover the main ones.

Content personalisation allows a warm contact between your brand and your audience. Above all, it is proven that personalised emails are high drivers for engagement.

Let’s compare these two examples.

I received this email from Mike Fishbein who is a personal development strategist about “How to Overcome Procrastination)

Besides the typo, there’s no particular personalisation to the subject line and it doesn’t particularly stand out.

I personally like to find my name in the emails I receive. This shows that the sender made some efforts to at least know my name as a valued reader.However, starting your email right with the topic can also be of an advantage depending on your overall content structure.

On the other side, you have LinkedIn which is one of the best at sending personalised emails.

LinkedIn has an excellent way to make its audience predefined the emails they want to receive.

For instance, by updating your LinkedIn alert you get only emails that match your interest.

Let’s break down the email I received some days back from them.

The subject line contains my name and puts forward my filters for the alerts. Even before opening the email, I know what to expect.

The use of my picture and my name add to the personalised service.

Here, LinkedIn used the FOMO effect and community building approach to create trust. This also gives more credibility to the content resulting in higher click rate.

LinkedIn shows that it cares for my interest and also that it knows my preferences.

At last, number 5 is a specific place where the biggest professional networking website cross sells its premium services together with my picture.

As a summary, personalisation adds to the customised experience you are offering to your audience.

If you want to stand out, experience is what matters.

What you need to take out

We receive tons of emails daily and most of the time, we omit reading them because of various reasons. Emails that work stand out and offers a customised experience to the reader.

When brands are genuinely interested in their customers’ preferences and not just focused on selling their products, brand love occurs. And this even through emails.

]]>https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/email-marketers-should-consider-these/feed/1pexels-photo-265651jbholanauthPASPAS---ExampleUntitled-2543FiguresUntitled-3untitled-31.png14 Mobile Marketing Statistics for 2017https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/14-mobile-marketing-statistics-for-2017/
https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/14-mobile-marketing-statistics-for-2017/#respondSun, 06 Aug 2017 18:19:59 +0000http://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/?p=4090]]>]]>https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/14-mobile-marketing-statistics-for-2017/feed/0Slide040jbholanauthSlide040Email Marketing is changinghttps://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/email-marketing-is-changing-things-you-should-know/
https://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/email-marketing-is-changing-things-you-should-know/#respondSun, 09 Jul 2017 18:01:39 +0000http://inboundmauritius.wordpress.com/?p=4078More Email Marketing is changing]]>Email Marketing is changing at a fast pace. What we considered as personal several years back is becoming a real business tool and is considered as the marketing medium bringing high ROI.

Find out the new trends in email marketing with this infographic from Kissmetrics.